Are you missing out on opportunities to grow your business?

At one point in time your company was a small, start-up that was excited to launch their first new product. Over time your company has grown, and so have the complexities of growing the business.

With so many areas to focus on, how can you ensure you are getting the highest returns on your investments?

Are you running the most innovative product development group that churns out great new product ideas on a regular basis? Are you leading the most efficient production facility that produces quality product each and every day? Are you keeping up to date with the latest compliance regulations, violating any of which could derail your hard-earned progress? Is your team constantly finding ways to reduce costs and improve quality?

With a background in all aspects of a business that manufactures products, Tech Bridge West can help optimize all these areas.

Product Categories

Services Available

Tech Bridge West, LLC has completed projects in numerous product categories. Some of them are listed here:

Projects can originate from many different aspects of your business. Some of the types of projects we have completed are listed here:

Food Ingredients

Included here are processed food ingredients such as dehydrated fruit or vegetable powders, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and pre/probiotics. Any part of a processed food ingredient list is included in this category. Processed food ingredients that are manufactured in plants are under strict Regulatory Compliance guidelines that must be met to avoid fines, or worse, plant closures.

R&D Product Development Process

Also known in some circles as Stage Gate™, we develop and implement processes to streamline the R&D Process from idea to manufacturing. The Product Development Process, or PDP, is a roadmap to help scientists and formulators move a project smoothly through concept, prototype, scale up and production with consistent cross functional communication with all areas of the organization.

Packaged Foods

Processed packaged foods sold in grocery stores make up the bulk of this category. Since the finished product ends up on the grocery store shelf, food safety and traceability is of utmost importance here. The process has to be under tight, demonstratable control. Having a solid Food Quality and Safety Plan is a major step towards ensuring that product is safe for consumption.

Food Quality and Safety Programs

For all categories of products, each one is required to have some form of Food Quality and Safety Plan in place. If your company does not have a solid, detailed plan for this, or have been audited and found deficient in any way, we can audit your program and either correct it or put a full program in place to ensure the safety and quality of the product.

Nutraceutical Ingredients

Herbs, botanicals, fungi, vitamins and minerals make up the bulk of this category. Since many of these ingredients atart out as wildcrafted (grown without farming oversight) it is imperative that you have tight production control to ensure the product maintains a high level of quality. Sourcing the right facility to process the ingredient can be challenging.

Regulatory Compliance

There are so many regulations surrounding any consumer product that is manufactured, knowing which one(s) that are applicable to your unique situation can be difficult to assess. We understand the regulations for all the product categories listed on the left and can help you navigate those waters to ensure when the FDA/USDA comes calling you will know you are in 100% compliance with the correct regulation.

Dietary Supplements

This category includes tablets, capsules, softgels, chewables, and bars. Once a formula has been approved for scale-up and production tight process control is required along with a solid food quality plan. Process Optimization can help with the production, while Regulatory Compliance projects are vital to maintaining 21 CFR Part 111 compliance in this highly regulated industry.

Manufacturing Sourcing

Now that you have a great idea/formula for a new product, how/where do you get it manufactured? It's not as easy as an internet search to find one. As with your own production facility regulatory compliance, your contract manufacturer has to comply as well. We have traveled all across the globe identifying capable manufacturers and can do the same for your product.

Pharmaceutical Ingredients

21 CFR Parts 210-211 describe the manner in which pharmaceutical ingredients must be manufactured and controlled. Being much stricter than those for dietary supplements, pharmaceutical excipient ingredients must be manufactured with detailed documentation of how it was produced. Having a solid written records program in place is a good start towards maintaining compliance.

Process Optimization

Once your product is being manufactured and sold, the job is not done. How can you optimize the process to drive down manufacturing costs? Given our background in Chemical Engineering, Process Optimization is something we build in to every product/process project. Continuous Improvement Programs, Lean/Six-Sigma projects or simply to optimize a start-up are some of the areas we can help.

Animal Supplements

For supplements designed for animals, whether for food as in cattle or home as in pets, the regulations are very similar to those of dietary supplements. However, compliance with 21 CFR Part 111 is not the final word in Food Safety. Having a thorough understanding of the requirements for manufacturing these products involves many steps.

Quality Control Specifications

Setting the right product/process specifications is a vital aspect of any project. For example, how do you measure the subjective components of your product like color, flavor and odor? How far from the target can your product be before it is no longer acceptable? We help you write the proper specifications with ranges that reflect real-life needs, not just a unduly narrow range for a non-critical specification.